Houston County woman celebrates 60 “Regardless of what happens, I got my miracle!”

After meeting Gayle Barlow, it should be nearly impossible for a person to sweat the small stuff. The challenges she has faced over the last seven years makes most of the things we find to complain about seem trivial. It was in 2013 that Barlow found out that she had colon cancer, and although much of her battle has been fought uphill, the testimony she has shared and lived is one that has encouraged many.

“I had a stomachache and didn’t really think anything about it,” Barlow recalled of the time it all started. “But it got so bad that I ended up in the emergency room.”

Despite the fact that she sat in the ER in intense pain and without the knowledge of what was causing it, Barlow said that she saw evidence of the hand of God in her experience from the beginning.

“This lady came up to my husband and said, ‘I need to start praying over your wife,’” Barlow shared. “She started praying over me right there in the ER.”

Being a Christian, Barlow had no objection even though this woman was a stranger. Barlow remembered there being a gentleman there with the lady, and he joined in and prayed over Barlow as well.

“I didn’t know them, but I was so sick that I was just thankful for any prayer. They prayed over me until the hospital took me back.”

Upon her initial evaluation, an emergency surgical procedure was ordered. As it turned out, Barlow had a perforated colon. According to her doctor, it was so bad that she had been just a day or two from death. But although that situation had been rectified through surgery, Barlow said that she somehow knew within herself that there was more.

“After the surgery, when I came to, I told the doctor I had cancer,” Barlow revealed. “He said, ‘No ma’am, you don’t. Why do you say that?’ And I told him again that I had cancer. The following day, he came back to the room and asked for my husband. I wanted to know why he was asking for him.”

It was then that Barlow learned that she had stage four colon cancer, and the doctor presented the grim news that it had already metastasized to her liver. Barlow readily disclosed that she wept upon hearing it, “but then I decided that there was no need to cry about it, because God’s got me.”

The doctor at the local hospital gave her a prognosis of six to 18 months. “I remember looking at the doctor and saying, ‘You don’t know my God. There’s only one person who knows when I’m going to die, and it’s not you.’”

Barlow ended up going to Emory Hospital in Atlanta. She admitted that she went there fully expecting to walk out with a miraculous story to tell.

“I believed so strongly that God was going to heal me. When we got back the first scans, the lady looked at me and wanted to know why I was so disappointed. I explained to her that I had hoped for a miracle.”

Although things didn’t work out the way Barlow hoped, she was told that the scans showed improvement. Afterward, she was introduced to another doctor.

“God was still with me,” she shared. “The doctor came in and explained all the things he was going to do, and he said he’d have me cancer free in just a few months. And sure enough, he did.”

In May of 2014, after a surgery that took place at Emory, where her liver was cleared out and her colon was taken care of, tests showed no signs of cancer. That, in and of itself, Barlow proclaimed, was a miracle.

“They’d told me that I had 18 months at the most, so God was alive, and He was taking care of me,” she testified. “I stayed cancer free for about 15 months, but in October of 2015, it came back in my liver.”

Barlow said that her doctor was very upset about the disease’s return, but in the midst of it all, she found reasons to be thankful. “It’s just been amazing in spite of everything,” she stated. “God has used my story. Before all this, I wouldn’t have talked to people. Yes, I went to church. Yes, I was religious. But I would have been scared to talk to people about the Lord and about this.”

The good news that she was cancer free came again, but only for a few months with the disease attacking her lungs again in January 2016. Barlow has been battling it ever since. Although her lungs mark the place where the cancer now is, she explained that she is still diagnosed as having colon cancer because that’s where it originated.

Even with this being the case, Barlow counts her blessings. “I prayed at the very beginning of all this, and I told the Lord that whatever His will is, that’s what will be done. But I told Him that my goal was my 60th birthday, and every day after that would be just a blessing and a gift that He’d be giving me. So regardless of what happens from this point, I got my miracle!”

Barlow turned 60 on December 26. While many others were celebrating what can be described as shallow gifts, Barlow was celebrating life.

To commemorate, her husband surprised her with a drive-thru birthday party in which many friends, family members and even complete strangers participated. During it, Barlow sat in a chair outside her home, wearing a “60 and Fabulous” sash, and joyfully watched as a parade of vehicles passed her home. Some participants handed gifts for Barlow to her family members who enjoyed the scene along with her.

“My family has been very supportive. My husband, our son and our daughter-in-law; also, we have two grandchildren. They have been wonderful. Our son and daughter-in-law have just been amazing. They’ve been lifesavers!”

A few months ago, after a genetic testing to see if she qualified for any clinical trials, Bartow received the positive news that she qualified for four, which doctors have told her is virtually unheard of. Most people, if they are fortunate, will qualify for one. Clinical trials are medications that, though approved by the FDA, haven’t been widely tested on patients to see how they respond to cancer. Doctors remain optimistic, however, that at least one of the trial medications will stop Barlow’s cancer.

In the meantime, as recently as December 23, a scan showed that the spots on Barlow’s lungs were growing. Still, Barlow sees God’s hands at work.

“Through this whole journey, I’ve never been sick like other cancer patients. I’ve not experienced those struggles of being down and out for weeks and being in and out of the hospital. So, again, God has been with me,” she declared.

If ever anyone should wonder why Barlow chooses not to have a personal pity party, her answer is this: “Whatever the outcome, my faith is going to carry me. When you know that you know where you’re going, and that you’re going to heaven, that makes a difference.”

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